Chevron Deference vs Regulatory Capture.

There has been a big, fat finger on the scales of justice. The?Big Telecom and Cable et al. ?-- AT&T, Verizon, Comcast and Charter, have taken control of America’s communications agenda -- but has also taken over and control the FCC advisory Committees, or has been able to stack the deck so that the Commission uses biased, corporate paid analyses and consulting, or the Chairman or staffers worked for one of the companies. And now with over $150 billion estimated being spent on state and federal subsidies, all of this is also now supported using billions in foundation grant money or government subsidies used as a payola scheme to keep control.

Thus, 'Chevron Deference' is when government agencies have been proclaimed the expert and so, like a Vegas casino, the odds are always in their favor. And the courts have decided to remove this designation, but it did not recognize that it was hi-jacked by the very corporations that the Agency is supposed to provide independent oversight and work for the public.

And to those who are decrying the removal, claiming it will be worse -- Excuse me, but where’s the fiber optic networks America paid for? Why have we been giving wealthy companies over $14 billion in ACP money and over $40 billion in BEAD money to solve a problem that was caused through regulatory capture -- and the companies using Chevron Deference against the public?

Since 1998, we filed over 150 times at the FCC, as New Networks, Teletruth and the IRREGULATORS, and even took the FCC to court over the accounting fraud currently underway. We were the first to file Data Quality Act or Regulatory Flexibility Act challenges -- over the garbage pail-corporate biased data submitted or used, or the failure of the FCC to do a full impact analysis for small businesses. Moreover, we, the members of the IRREGS team over the last 3 decades, came loaded with facts and lawyers , auditors and experts, that included leading consumer advocates -- such as David Bergmann, Esq, (on eternal leave),or experts in the accounting, such as Paul Hartman, and our own telecom auditing firm, LTC under Tom Allibone, ?and we won 4 settled, class actions dealing with billing. ?We asked the FCC to clean up the billing issues since the 1990's.

Unless we clean house and get rid of the ability for the corporations to take over the agency, who use Chevron Deference to shut down investigations, etc., keeping Chevron Deference is just reinforcing the power of the corporate capture.

And we know now-- it doesn’t matter that we had the expertise to challenge. At $150k-$250k for a legal action, which would then get remanded back to the agency -- or the petitions that the FCC could ignore- -- we will always lose, as they have the last word.

And the last and this current FCC are captured.

Today, it appears that 90% of the FCC Diversity advisory Committee has one or more financial ties to the companies, such as AT&T, Verizon, Comcast or Charter, ?and virtually all of the large players are represented, as they or their associations are all on the Committee.

Verizon, AT&T, USTelecom, Wiley Rein, Connected Nation, MMTC, Charter, LGBT, Comcast, -- partial list.

How is it possible that corporate-compromised "Connected Nation" is one of the leaders of the committee, or the nonprofits, are getting funding from now the cable and phone companies and who are helping the corporations at multiple levels of the discussion, all hold hands and sing com-by-ya?

And we have had an inside seat: We were on the FCC Consumer Advisory Committee and were blocked from presenting our ‘truth-in-billing’/overcharging findings about Verizon. We used actual bills and have an telecom auditing group. Instead, what we found was a corrupt FCC --and if you challenge it, they, like the Vegas casino, have the odds in their favor. And this was 2 decades ago.

No one remembers when a former Verizon attorney, Ajit Pai, became FCC Chairman. He had worked at Verizon 2001-2003, for William Barr it appears, (former US Attorney General and Senior lawyer for Verizon-GTE, 1994-2008),?and was joined by current FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr, who at Wiley Rein, worked for Verizon in 2008 to get rid of accounting and financial reporting requirements, and then the wireless association, CTIA, where he took San Francisco to court as a 'first amendment right- -- of the wireless carriers -- AT&T and Verizon and others. However, he never mentioned this in his testimony to become commissioner. And, of course, the Pai-Trump FCC was guided by a ?transition team that included multiple groups funded by the companies. And his first act was to help finish getting rid of the accounting and financial requirements, and Brendan Carr was his staffer. I.e., former lawyers who worked for Verizon got rid of all of the financial books -removing the audit trail for all of the wireline telcos in America.

Anyone who has been following our work knows that the only state we know of that is still requiring a financial report that is public us New York-- and there are billions of dollars at stake per state.

The real irony is that William Barr became US Attorney General a second time under Trump, and he would ignore any calls to investigate, and the FCC itself would never investigate then -- or now.

Anyone who thinks this current ?FCC or the NTIA are functional -- must examine the fact that not one state 5 year broadband plan has any details about how the Digital Divide was created in their state -- and so giving billions to the companies that caused the Divide is now commonplace. In fact, the FCC has never included any state-based fiber optic plan since the first 1998 advanced network reports (706) and this omission was done on purpose.

It isn’t simply their ability to rewrite history, or that it is played against ‘institutional amnesia’-- no one remembers. ?Chevron Deference gives the companies more power, as they control the agencies, and they choose and select the research, creating public policies. Add to this ALEC and other groups, even takeovers of the state legislatures are going on as corporate-takeover for legislation that they write and then get those they help to get elected or their pet projects are paid for as part of this payola scheme.

What should happen? We don’t care that the monopolies want to give money to the nonprofits, or use research they fund then claim it is ‘objective’. What is unlawful is when they are at a federal or state agency who will shape public policy for the benefit of their benefactor-- and these conflicts of interest, or just straight out payola-- must stop.

The FCC is not the ‘experts’; they couldn’t win a factual debate against our group or many other ‘objective’ experts who are not corporate funded. ?Note; We asked the FCC multiple times for a public hearing a debate.

But, it is now clear this is thick and deep and it is not being addressed. ?America should be considering actions to determine if all of this is part of a conspiracy, with intent, to harm the public. It is time to declare these financial ties and conflicts of interest, or payola using foundation grant money,?as an illegal act with penalties, with criminal charges for enforcement.?

And until this is solved, Chevron Deference is a moot point. We already lost and removing the ability for an agency to create anti-public interest laws has been and continues now and has for decades. At least we can hope that this gives a more level playing field -- but of course, it can't and won't happen because the entrenched interests are hiding in plain sight, claiming they are solving the Digital Divide

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